Starting from scratch... Sort of.

[bmwoody]

Hi guys! I've been browsing these forums over the past few days, and you all seem very helpful and knowledgable about recording and sound equipment, so I figured I may as well just ask straight out for help. This is going to be a BIG post.

I'm looking to start a recording studio in my shed. It's a polebarn style shed with a 13'X13' area that we remodeled a couple years ago. There are already some decent soundproofing pads on the walls (in addition to the 3" of fiberglass insulation) that help deaden the sound pretty well. I've been in various bands, and this area has in the last two years been used as practice space.

That being said, I have also attempted some recordings through a slightly modified version of the basic live setup. (I can provide samples if anyone wants to hear...They're alright for the setup.) Here's where the BIG part comes in. I need to know what components I still need to buy, and what I can still use in a recording environment. Here's the setup I've got so far:

For vocals, I have a (somewhat worn out) Sennheiser E835 (I know this one's more of a performance mic) and a couple of Shure SM48's. For guitars, I've just been using the same mics as the vocals. For drums, I have a set of Audix Fusion series (3 F-10s, 1 F-12, and 2 F-15s). I've been running it all through a Mackie mixer into a CPU with an M-Audio Delta 44 sound card. I record using Acid 5.0 (the free version came with the sound card; I just went ahead and upgraded). I also just bought a MXL-990 and MXL-991 (which I'm thinking of using for acoustic guitar, if nothing else).

I guess this is kind of an open-ended post, and I'm not expecting one big answer from one person. But if you happen to read this, and know a bit about any of the stuff I've got, feel free to leave feedback.

*Deep breath* So... How good is my current equipment? What else would you recommend buying (in a relatively low price range)? I'd like to begin by improving a few small things here and there that will make a significant difference. Where do I start?

 

[pandamonk]

Good monitors. I don't understand. What are the walls like? wooden exterior, then fiberglass, do you have dry wall on the inside? If not, doesn't the sound leak quite a bit? Soundproofing pads? What are they? the eggcrate foam that is advertised as being soundproof? I'm actually building a studio in a shed too. It's a 14'x8' shed which I'm splitting into 2 rooms, then is attatched to an anderson bomb shelter(3 bricks thick)which will house the drum and vocal booths. I've built a second shed decoupled from the 14x8 shed on the outside with insulation between, and will have drywall on the inside of the inner shed, with a partition wall seprateing the 2 rooms. What are the specs of ur computer? What do you want to know/change?

 

[bmwoody]

The computer's running on Windows 2000, it's custom built (though not exactly dedicated to recording). Around 1.6 ghz processor, 512MB RAM, plenty of hard drive space. If you're looking for something else specific, feel free to ask, because I honestly don't know what other factors would come into play in that area.

The outer walls of the shed are actually metal. Then comes the wooden frame with the fiberglass, then the drywall. The soundproofing pads are... Well, I honestly don't know. They were a gift from my mom, and she bought them off ebay. They're white, about 1/4" thick, and the outside is made of some cloth material. I'm not sure exactly what's housed inside, but thanks to a pesky mouse, I know that it looks somewhat like the fiberglass insulation we put in, except finer, and white. You can see what it looks like in the background of this picture.

I'm sorry for not clarifying the first post. My intent was to ask how up-to-par my equipment was, and what other things I should plan on buying to begin (realatively low price range). I guess I got so caught up in trying to include everything, I forgot to actually ask the right question!

 

[scoop johnson]

your comp is not up to par you need at least a p4 1 gig of ram a harddrive that is 7200 rpms that is not your primary drive most good software runs on mac or xp sp2 also try looking into an mbox by digidesigns.com that sight will give you all the specifics you need

 

[pandamonk]

Yeh, that "soundproofing" actually does nothing for insulating sound. Well very little. It will deaden the hi and mid frequencies, ie stop echos. The worst frequencies to isolate, deaden, and mix in are low frequencies. I'd suggest building bass traps in the corners(check the building forum). So are you going to be tracking and recording in the same room? Hmm, not really a good idea, but can be done. I've done a plan of what I'd do with you room. EAms you can isolate the drums without building a permanent wall. You could use the bass traps and broadband abosrbers round the singer for a dead vocal booth. Look on the building forum for how 2 build bass traps and broadband abosrbers.

 

[bmwoody]

Thanks for the input so far, guys. I'm really looking forward to getting this project off the ground. I'll definitely check out that site, scoop. I've been looking to get a better PC anyway.

In response to pandamonk: At the moment, it's all one room. My eventual plan was actually somewhat similar to your layout. I'll attach a picture of the general layout of the room so you can get a better idea of what I'm working with. Like I said before, this wasn't specifically designed to be a studio to begin with, but I think it has the potential.

My long term plan was to put some (probably removable, as I'll probably still use it as practice space) barrier like the fiberglass one in your diagram surrounding the current "stage" area to separate it from the rest of the room.

For now, I'll look into the bass trap/broadband absorber idea. Keep 'em comin', guys!